The Best Way To Get Silky, Tender Duck Confit

Duck confit is one of the fancier things you can make at home that's not as prep-heavy as other French dishes. There are no fussy sauces to make and keep from breaking, no tedious chopping or julienning, no long list of ingredients. It's a decadent and delicious protein that will knock your socks off, and a great way to mark a special occasion. 

The hardest thing about duck confit is that it takes a long time to cook: So maintaining the proper temperature consistently the whole time it's cooking is a challenge. Additionally, duck confit requires enough duck fat that the whole of what you're cooking (leg, breast, whole duck) can be fully submerged in it, while carefully tending it for hours to ensure the cooking temperature stays just right. But to get the silkiest, most tender duck confit around, the best method actually takes all of these worries away. All you need is sous vide. 

Because duck is a fatty fowl, you don't actually need any additional duck fat if you're making the confit with a sous vide machine. The duck renders its own fat and then cooks in it, as long as the vacuum seal on the bag is done right and tight. And with the beauty of the sous vide method, the cooking temperature remains even the whole time, keeping the exterior of the duck from over-cooking while the interior cooks through. After many tests, Serious Eats Senior Culinary Director Daniel Gritzer found that cooking sous vide for 36 hours at 155 degrees Fahrenheit creates the silkiest, smoothest, most moist duck confit possible.

Many recipes for duck confit will call for the duck to be cured with salt for at least 8 hours, or overnight. This dates back to confit (which translates to "preserve" in French) being a pre-refrigeration method of keeping meat from spoiling. Between the salt cure being used to prevent microbial growth, and the fat bath, and entombment keeping the meat from spoiling, traditionally confit meat can be safely kept for up to four months in a cool (55 degrees Fahrenheit), dark, dry place. Gritzer found that while the cured duck did have a slightly muskier flavor, it was nearly imperceptible; if you're not using the method as a preservation technique, it's up to you whether you want to spend the time curing it or not.

Once you've removed the duck from the sous vide bath, you can either prepare the duck for eating right off the bone, or you can prep it as an ingredient in other dishes. To eat it on its own, the skin must be brown and crispy, so cook it in the oven at 450 degrees Fahrenheit for about seven minutes, or broil it for slightly less time.

If you'd rather use it in a dish, you have options. One of those options is the duck confit and butternut squash risotto from Wisconsin restaurant Destination Kohler. The moist duck and extra creamy risotto (thanks to the added mascarpone cheese) with the savory parmesan and sweet butternut squash makes for an unforgettable risotto. If you find yourself blessed with a massive amount of duck in need of using up, confit it all and make a duck confit version of shepherd's pie. 

If you have a more modest amount of duck, enjoy it in a French-style sandwich prepared like it is at the Ma Poule stall in the renowned Copenhagen food market Torvehallerne. As with sandwiches like jambon-beurre, the French really let the quality of the ingredients shine: In this case, it's the silky and moist duck confit on a fresh, crusty baguette with a light mustard (we recommend Dijon) and some snappy watercress. It really lets the duck speak for itself, and it may be one of the best sandwiches of your life.